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Kush, film about 1984 anti-Sikh riots, to be screened at Venice film festival

Based on a true story, Kush is a short film set in Delhi in the aftermath of the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in October, 1984, when organized mobs engaged in an anti-Sikh pogrom in India’s capital city and beyond. Thousands of innocent Sikhs were killed, burned alive, beaten, raped and tortured to avenge the Prime Minister’s death. To this day, few — including government officials implicated in the massacre — have ever been held to account by India’s justice system.

Inspired by a true story: In 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards, causing anti-Sikh riots to erupt throughout the country. A teacher travelling back from a field trip with her class of 10-year-old students struggles to protect Kush, the only Sikh student in the class, from the growing violence around him.